Twilight Movie Review

Twilight: A Star-Crossed Lovers Tale That Lacks Bite

Love for the sake of love is a story as old as the hills, but I couldn't help wondering if it might be a bit misplaced in our modern times as I watched the screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular young adult novel Twilight. In this story's world, if you're the first girl the gorgeous, brooding guy across the cafeteria is suddenly interested in, you've accomplished something worth celebrating. You should not ask why, and you should return his desire for you with a devotion so intense you're even willing to risk death. It's all very dramatic and smacks of an old-fashioned tale of romance and danger. But rather than seeming antiquated, this kind of earnest, obsessive love story manages to be more or less universal enough for today's savvy audiences.
Director Catherine Hardwicke (who knows from movies about teens, having directed Thirteen) smartly casts her leads with talented young actors (Kristen Stewart as the mortal teenager Bella Swan and Rob Pattinson effortlessly playing the self-loathing vampire, Edward Cullen) and centers her film on the slow, boiling passion that builds between them. However, Hardwicke is woefully negligent when it comes to special effects and seems hindered here by a tiny budget. In Meyer's books, the intensity of Edward and Bella's love for each other is matched by the amount of danger that one or both are in due to the vampire stuff. In this movie, the love soars while the supernatural intrigue never gets off the ground, and action sequences land with a hard, laughable thud, making for a somewhat schizophrenic viewing experience. To see what I mean, read more.

After her mother remarries Bella leaves sunny Arizona for a soggy, tiny, town in the Northwest. Bella's a sullen, shy girl, but that doesn't put off the local teens at her new high school who bounce around her like excitable puppies. The boys want to date her, the girls befriend her — it's an easy transition overall. On her first day, Bella notices the Cullen brood enter the building in slow motion while her new friend Jessica explains that they are a mysterious family who only ever hang out with each other. Bella can't help but be transfixed by the show stopper of the bunch: Edward (Judging by the frantic, high-pitched screaming of the youngsters in my screening you may want to bring your earplugs for this scene with Pattinson's entrance). Ultimately, Bella catches on to Edward's secrets, which only make her want to get closer to him. He relents, admitting that the scent of her blood is "like heroin" to him. After revealing the whole truth about his family, he tries to make clear to her that they're loathsome creatures doing the best they can to be good (not kill people), and hunt animals instead.

I'm thankful they dispensed with the book's incessant worship of Edward's physical appearance (no need for that anyway, as Rob radiates a heartthrob-y charisma). I just wish there was a bit more explanation as to why Bella is willing to cross over into the dangerous and uncharted territory of canoodling with the undead. Despite all that, I like the movie's Bella better than the book's Bella. Stewart infuses the young woman with an inner strength and gravitas that makes her more of a likable tomboy rather than a helpless teen with low self-esteem. Even quite seriously hindered by funny pasty make-up, Pattinson makes his Edward far less bossy and overbearing than the book's, and has more of a "misunderstood bad boy" vibe going.
For the uninitiated, there's a lot that goes unexplained. For example, one of Edward's "brothers," Jasper, looks like he's perpetually enduring an enema which caused laughter from the audience each time he was on screen because we all knew he has a harder time than most resisting eating people. If you haven't read the book, you'll just laugh at this ridiculously stiff, stunned-looking actor. But there are moments in the movie, like when Bella and Edward are lying in a field together, where the visuals are so lovely and the look of it so lush, it's impossible not to get a little swept away in the transcendence of young love, whether you've read the book or not.

But for every little moment in the movie that gives it some universal charm, there's something hilariously, well, bad that happens. Like a cheesy flashback. Or crazy bad special effects. Or laugh-out-loud pasty makeup. Still, it's clear the filmmakers did what they could with the source material being what it is and the budget they had. The truth of the matter is it's a fun — sometimes funny, sometimes stirring — ride and at the end of the day, I was entertained. It may baffle some but fans most likely won't be disappointed.

Read the entire series this week. Saw the movie. Your article is off base. Their relationship didn't start with the classic teenage flick formula: Girl sees mysterious boy. Boy pays attention to her first and she swoons. There was conflict in the story line. I do think you can't appreciate the movie without reading the books. It's a movie. Movies NEVER live up to expectations. You have time to experience the essence of emotions and your reactions when you read a book. Movies never get the entire description and/or character development.

"laugh-out-loud pasty makeup"that's truei can't stop laugh when i first saw the cullen family with their pasty make up~!truth be told, i want the love that the movie bringing.and it's the amazing and stirring point of twilight

"laugh-out-loud pasty makeup"
that's true
i can't stop laugh when i first saw the cullen family with their pasty make up~!
truth be told, i want the love that the movie bringing.
and it's the amazing and stirring point of twilight

I am definitely a fan of the twilight book series. grammatical error and whatever supposed flaws the books possess aside, it is a beautiful love story through and through. and i suppose my biggest dissapointment in the movie was that the overwhelming and unprecidented love between Edward and Bella was not so intensely expressed...sure there were things such as special effects, certain great scenes that were cut-out and character exposure of Jasper and Alice (there was virtually NONE) that caused the film to be a little dissapointing...but really the main thing that fell flat in the movie was the portrayal of their love..which i actually felt was not Rob Pattinsons fault....actually i think that HE amped up his role to a breathtaking extreme and i cant think of any living man more made for the role of Edward...its almost scary! :0 i think for the most part the actors casted worked well with their roles...though certain ones may have been slightly different than what we fans imagined in our minds...they worked; alice (though a bit tall defintely spoke and acted and otherwise looked like alice should) jasper, emmett, carlisle, charlie, jacob, billy, mike and etc were all like a manifestation of the descriptions in the books. However, Bella was the one character who didnt bring the "ooomph" needed to the movie... beforehand based on pictures i thought that for the most part Kristen Stewart LOOKED like Bella (though she Swasn't actually PETITE..the way Meyer emphasizes in the book)..but as soon as she opened her mouth or even in her movements the whole Bella-esque presence was gone...Bella is supposed to be insecure but not so insecure that she is nervously shivering constantly like a caged chihuahua..the beauty about Bella is that she is insecure yet secure about herself because she accepts herself as being plain and unnoticed (though to outsiders she is opposite of her self image) and that acceptance is supposed to provide her with a sort of dry almost sarcastic, yet quiet and relaxed personality...Kristen Stewart's Bella also did not seem surprisingly cuddly and at ease once she and Edward became more of a thing..it just always seemed painful and awkward...the sweet thing about Bella and Edward's relationship is that Edward feels all wrong and wary of being around this girl that both his appetite and heart desires while she is completely untroubled by his being a vampire and any other complications accompanying. the movie Bella did not seem immensely happier once she and Edward became an item which once again weakened the portrayal of the near-suffocating amount of love between the two. As a fan i feel like the movie has good intentions and fulfilled some of them...i think Catherine Harwicke has the right sort of style to produce a film such as Twilight..all i would hope for the next movies as an improvement would be them casting a different Bella...maybe someone more obscure and fitting than kristen stewart... though that happening is doubtful =/ pointless lengthy comment i know, but just seemed like the appropriatea place to voice my frustrations...since i think my family and friends are getting tired of me doing so with them :D hehe peace :-)

I am definitely a fan of the twilight book series. grammatical error and whatever supposed flaws the books possess aside, it is a beautiful love story through and through. and i suppose my biggest dissapointment in the movie was that the overwhelming and unprecidented love between Edward and Bella was not so intensely expressed...sure there were things such as special effects, certain great scenes that were cut-out and character exposure of Jasper and Alice (there was virtually NONE) that caused the film to be a little dissapointing...but really the main thing that fell flat in the movie was the portrayal of their love..which i actually felt was not Rob Pattinsons fault....actually i think that HE amped up his role to a breathtaking extreme and i cant think of any living man more made for the role of Edward...its almost scary! :0 i think for the most part the actors casted worked well with their roles...though certain ones may have been slightly different than what we fans imagined in our minds...they worked; alice (though a bit tall defintely spoke and acted and otherwise looked like alice should) jasper, emmett, carlisle, charlie, jacob, billy, mike and etc were all like a manifestation of the descriptions in the books.
However, Bella was the one character who didnt bring the "ooomph" needed to the movie... beforehand based on pictures i thought that for the most part Kristen Stewart LOOKED like Bella (though she Swasn't actually PETITE..the way Meyer emphasizes in the book)..but as soon as she opened her mouth or even in her movements the whole Bella-esque presence was gone...Bella is supposed to be insecure but not so insecure that she is nervously shivering constantly like a caged chihuahua..the beauty about Bella is that she is insecure yet secure about herself because she accepts herself as being plain and unnoticed (though to outsiders she is opposite of her self image) and that acceptance is supposed to provide her with a sort of dry almost sarcastic, yet quiet and relaxed personality...
Kristen Stewart's Bella also did not seem surprisingly cuddly and at ease once she and Edward became more of a thing..it just always seemed painful and awkward...the sweet thing about Bella and Edward's relationship is that Edward feels all wrong and wary of being around this girl that both his appetite and heart desires while she is completely untroubled by his being a vampire and any other complications accompanying. the movie Bella did not seem immensely happier once she and Edward became an item which once again weakened the portrayal of the near-suffocating amount of love between the two.
As a fan i feel like the movie has good intentions and fulfilled some of them...i think Catherine Harwicke has the right sort of style to produce a film such as Twilight..all i would hope for the next movies as an improvement would be them casting a different Bella...maybe someone more obscure and fitting than kristen stewart... though that happening is doubtful =/
pointless lengthy comment i know, but just seemed like the appropriatea place to voice my frustrations...since i think my family and friends are getting tired of me doing so with them :D hehe
peace :-)

this movie has to be one of the best ever, because, even with their low budget and all the high expectations of the book lovers, they managed to make it so entertaining and stirring through and through. sure there where some cheesy parts [but what movie doesent?] and there where some parts that didnt show up in the movie but still it was great! :]

I just saw the movie... and it was horrible. Alice can not act, its the most irritating thing in the world that one of the coolest characters in the book can't even deliver lines. Secondly Robert Pattison made Edward into less of an abusive, controlling and cocky character, he made him seem so...real, flawed, tortured but capable of succumbing to his wants. I wish Kristen had decided to do the same for her character. Bella was alright ...she just seemed too awkward. I never liked Bella from the books either though.

I thought this was going to be as annoying to me as Harry Potter was with all of the hype and boring story. But my friends and sisters got into it (and my sisters don't read), so I became intrigued. They took me to a showing tonight and I fell in love!!! I thought it was amazing. It depicted love in a good light and it's always interesting when the lovers can't really be together. I laughed and teared up and definitely fell prey to Edward :) I bought the book after the movie and plan on seeing it again after I read it.

Rivrchild, thank you for reading my mind. I went to see the movie with my sister (who is a fan of the books) and wasn't expecting much. The one thing I was expecting was for Kristen Stewart to not be terrible. That fell through. Her acting actually made me laugh several times during the beginning of the movie. I guess she took acting classes that tell you to blink, stutter and shake your head at least twice per line. Other than that, the movie was ok. Robert exceeded expectations. The tree climbing and the my little pony sparkles were pretty terrible.

I totally agree with Buzz! When I read the book, I was totally overwhelmed, it was so intense... The movie felt like the fast forward version of the book. Robert Pattinson looks good as Edward and I really liked him, but I imagined him to be super funny, smug and kind of wry. He always looked so tortured in the movie... I didn't like that, it was too much.
It seemed to me that Hardwicke somehow tried to enforce the progress of the story. One example: Bella wants to get on the bus after visiting the greenhouse. Then Edward comes and says something like "Bella, we can't be friends". This comes so unnatural, so artificial, without an introduction... I don't know how to explain it ;)
Also, I didn't think that there was any chemistry between Robert and Kristen. They are good actors, but not together. I'm really disappointed by that.
In summary the movie was nice as a movie. As the adaption of the book "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer it was acceptable, but for me it wasn't good enough.

I totally agree with Buzz! When I read the book, I was totally overwhelmed, it was so intense... The movie felt like the fast forward version of the book. Robert Pattinson looks good as Edward and I really liked him, but I imagined him to be super funny, smug and kind of wry. He always looked so tortured in the movie... I didn't like that, it was too much.It seemed to me that Hardwicke somehow tried to enforce the progress of the story. One example: Bella wants to get on the bus after visiting the greenhouse. Then Edward comes and says something like "Bella, we can't be friends". This comes so unnatural, so artificial, without an introduction... I don't know how to explain it ;)Also, I didn't think that there was any chemistry between Robert and Kristen. They are good actors, but not together. I'm really disappointed by that.In summary the movie was nice as a movie. As the adaption of the book "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer it was acceptable, but for me it wasn't good enough.

if you are a fan of the series and were disappointed like i was in the movie, then try seeing it again. i saw it again today and liked it much better. i have calmed down over my two major gripes being lack of character development and buildup to the love story. i still wish there had been more of each to convert skeptics and nonreaders who think this is just a series for silly teenage girls, but i was much more accepting the second time around. give it another shot.

yadiet--You can appreciate romance and legitimately discredit Twilight, and all subsequent Stephenie Meyer books, of fine literary merit. You can have an active imagination and still know that Twilight is of poor standard. I'm not above reading children's lit., in fact it would be of greater pleasure to read The Velveteen Rabbit, The Little Prince or The Wind in the Willows. The Da Vinci Code was a wildly popular book, but is Dan Brown's prose really as good as the sales suggest (nooooooo)? Twilight succeeds in accessibility (at least for the book's target demo), but it can hardly be considered a good read.

yadiet--You can appreciate romance and legitimately discredit Twilight, and all subsequent Stephenie Meyer books, of fine literary merit. You can have an active imagination and still know that Twilight is of poor standard. I'm not above reading children's lit., in fact it would be of greater pleasure to read <i>The Velveteen Rabbit</i>, <i>The Little Prince</i> or <i>The Wind in the Willows</i>. <i>The Da Vinci Code</i> was a wildly popular book, but is Dan Brown's prose really as good as the sales suggest (nooooooo)? Twilight succeeds in accessibility (at least for the book's target demo), but it can hardly be considered a good read.

californiagirlx7 [+] you have some nerve!! do i care if your in high school or not or if you are 90 years old. regardless of your age, gender or whatever the case may be you still have a thinking process, and imagination! I'm a junior in college
but I don't go announcing my reading leavel on the Internet.
"mindless romance novels"
the books are extremely good. and better than Harry Potter. Vampires and Wizard might not exist but true love does. And half of the women and men that have read Twilight and all the following novels have stated that these novels are full of romance. which begins in your high school stage of life. And that comment that you made was extremely rude. And my comments weren't even referring to you!